In denying the right (the Supreme Court usurps) of exclusively explaining the Constitution, I go further than (others) do, if I understand rightly (this) quotation from the Federalist of an opinion that ‘the judiciary is the last resort in relation to the other departments of the government, but not in relation to the rights of […]
Constitution Quotes
With respect to the words, “general welfare,” I have always regarded them as qualified by the details of power connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators.
We shouldn’t have to be burdened with all the technicalities that come up from time to time with shrewd, smart lawyers interpreting what the laws or what the Constitution may or may not say.
The ultimate touchstone of constitutionality is the Constitution itself and not what we have said about it.
If the Constitution is to be construed to mean what the majority at any given period in history wish the Constitution to mean, why a written Constitution?
We have seen that the American Constitution has changed, is changing, and by the law of its existence must continue to change, in its substance and practical working even when its words remain the same.
Is that which was deemed to be of so fundamental a nature as to be written into the Constitution to endure for all times to be the sport of shifting winds of doctrine?
The Fourteenth Amendment… was adopted with a view to the protection of the colored race, but has been found to be equally important in its application to the rights of all.
The Constitution was built for rough as well as smooth roads. In time of war the nation simply changes gears and takes the harder going under the same power.
If the function of this Court is to be essentially no different from that of a legislature, if the considerations governing constitutional construction are to be substantially those that underlie legislation, then indeed judges should not have life tenure and they should be made directly responsible to the electorate.
